Among the Lansdowne Manuscripts in the British Museum there is a short Memoir of the State of Political Parties in England from the last year of the reign of William the Third to the death of Queen Anne, written by the Earl of Coningsby (at least so afterwards created), who was throughout engaged in the ministerial divisions of that period, and divisions they were of no ordinary character.

Among several MS. Letters which I purchased at the recent sale of Mr. Dawson Turner's Library, there is one which I think may have some interest for the Society of Antiquaries, and which I therefore take leave to send you for exhibition. You will perceive that it is addressed to one of my family, John Stanhope, who was created in 1605 Lord Stanhope of Harrington. At the time when this letter was written he was Treasurer of the Chamber to Queen Elizabeth; and the letter is evidently designed for the information of the Government.

Being written from France in time of war, the letter is expressed with great caution and mystery, and it bears neither signature nor date of year. But it plainly appears I think to have been written in 1588, on the dispersion of the Spanish Armada.

The countries washed by the Mediterranean have necessarily been the great field of research for investigating the remains of the older historic civilizations with which they are strewn; and I cannot doubt that the same shores, which, from their physical peculiarities, have ever been the seat of a large and active population, retain still for us most significant illustrations of that early substratum, the pre-classical culture, the widely spread relics of which are the elements of our primeval archaeology. To some of those elements I have on other occasions adverted; and here I propose chiefly to direct attention to another—a very remarkable group of cromlechs in Algeria, which I have had recently an opportunity of visiting and examining.

The historical drama of a country is imperfect and hardly intelligible unless it represent the scenes on which, and the political conditions under which, its action takes place. Its narrative should be accompanied by a contemporary view of the political geography,—of the territorial limits and divisions of the country, so far as they affect or are affected by the course of political events.

The earliest of the four Deeds exhibited is without date, but is probably of the latter half of the thirteenth century; by it William de Oddynggeshel, lord of the manor of Solihull, gave and confirmed to Robert Tyberay a piece of land in Solihull, lying in the township of the borough of Solihull, to him and his heirs.

Although the borough of Southwark abounds with subjects of historical and antiquarian interest, it has hitherto been greatly neglected by our metropolitan topographers and local historians; and we now know little more of that considerable portion of the metropolis than was recorded by John Stow, in his Survey of London, two hundred and fifty years ago.

The natural connection between Geology and Archaeology has at various times been pointed out by more than one writer on each subject; and it must, indeed, be apparent to all who consider that both sciences treat of time past as compared with time present. The one, indeed, merges by almost imperceptible degrees in the other; while the object of both is, from the examination of ancient remains, to recall into an ideal existence days long since passed away, to trace the conditions of a previous state of things, and, as it were, to repeople the earth with its former inhabitants.

In an age when the voice of philanthropy is raised against the extreme penalty of the law, an inquiry into the origin and practice of certain modes of capital punishment, now obsolete, but long known to our ancestors, may not be deemed unworthy the attention of this Society.

Au mois de Fevrier 1858 M. Metayer, de Bernay (Eure), a fait dans l'ancienne léproserie de cette ville une fouille qui procure une page nouvelle à l'histoire de la sépulture chrétienne du moyen-âge. Cette léproserie, peu eloignée de la ville, est aujourd'hui une ferme connue sous le nom de la Madeleine, dernière trace de l'ancien vocable de cet établissement hospitalier.

My dear Uncle,—For some years past I have occupied my leisure time in collecting information of such of my countrymen as have dwelt in Denmark, or of whom memorials may here be found. These have been partly made use of in a small work entitled “Copenhagen and its Environs,” published by me a few years ago for the use of English travellers.

It is many years since an impression of the Great Seal of England executed by Symons, and admitted by all to be his best work, was submitted to the inspection of the Fellows of our Society; and I believe that none of our present Fellows then belonged to us: so that its re-appearance may have in some measure the character of a new exhibition.

I understand that the Society of Antiquaries plumes itself somewhat upon being possessor of what has been supposed to be the only known autograph of Elizabeth Cromwell, the Protectress. However, amongst an immense mass of petitions, which poured in, torrent-like, on the Restoration of Charles II., I have discovered one from this lady, signed by herself, though not written with her own hand. I inclose you a copy of the petition; the date is not given, but it can be proximately determined by the circumstance that the endorsement, a very characteristic one, is in the handwriting of Sir Edward Nicholas, whose period of secretaryship terminated in October, 1662. I doubt whether the prayer of the petition was ever granted, for I find no reference upon it, and in a large index to the warrants and other documents of the period, which exists in the State Paper Office, no notice occurs of a warrant for the solicited protection.

The Valley of the Thames had naturally many attractions for our Saxon forefathers. Their cattle found in its meadows abundant pasturage, its marshes were the resort of myriads of wild fowl, while the stream itself afforded the means of transit between the towns and villages on its banks, many of which retain in their names evidence of their Anglo-Saxon origin.

I have the honour to report to the Society of Antiquaries the result of renewed researches during the present autumn in the Anglo-Saxon Cemetery at Brighthampton. The reliques on the table are evidence that on the former occasion this ancient burialplace was but partially explored. I have now the gratification of exhibiting a series of ancient remains inferior in interest to none that research or accident has brought to light in this country.

By the kindness of the Rev. Edgar Edmund Estcourt, M.A., Fellow of the Society, we are presented with a transcript of an Inventory, of which the original is now preserved in H. M. Record Office, bearing the following title: “Inventory of the goods belonging to the King's grace by the forfeiture of the Lady Hungerford, attainted of murder in Hilary term Anno xiiij. Regis Henrici VIII.”

Every cultivator of our national biography and literary antiquities must rejoice at the appearance of the first volume of the Athense Cantabrigienses. That a work which was so obviously suggested nearly two centuries ago by the Athense of the sister University, which has been contemplated by so many successive collectors, and for which such large, though imperfect, accumulations have been formed, should, in spite of ever-increasing difficulties, at length greet our view in substantial paper and print, is a victory over old Time of which any generation may fairly be proud; and I therefore cannot be thought to magnify its accomplishment too highly if, on this first public allusion to the work at the Society of Antiquaries, I hail its authors as conquerors who have overtaken the spoiler, and recovered from his grasp some of his most estimable treasures.

I have great pleasure in being able to submit to the notice of the Society a large collection of relics, interesting, not only from the use to which they have been applied, but also from the excellence of their workmanship. They will be recognized as belonging to the class of antiquities known as Pilgrims’ Signs.

I am enabled by the kindness of Mr. Perry to lay before the Society an impression in paper from a large tablet, dated in the reign of Thothmes III., which has been recently discovered at Thebes. The impression of it was made by Lord John Hay, when on a visit to Thebes, and has only just reached this country. The tablet contains a text of twenty-four lines of hieroglyphs, accompanied by a scene representing Thothmes in adoration to the principal Thebandeities. The purport of the text is religious, announcing the benefits conferred by the god Amen Ra on the monarch, but it contains several historical allusions of importance to the history of this reign. As it helps to complete the “Annals of Thothmes III.” of which I have already given some account to the Society, I trust the short accompanying notice of the inscription and its contents may prove acceptable.

On the 17th of June, 1858, several interesting original letters of and to members of the Stanhope family, in the time of Queen Elizabeth and King James I., were communicated to the Society of Antiquaries by Richard Almack, Esq. F.S.A., but, being produced late in the evening of the last meeting of the season, I think they hardly received so much attention as they deserved. Among those letters were several to John Lord Stanhope of Harrington, to whom was addressed the highly interesting letter communicated to the Society by our noble President, and read, with observations by Robert Lemon, Esq. F.S.A., on the 22nd December last.

The Deed exhibited this evening by Mr. Joseph Jackson Howard has appeared to me sufficiently interesting to justify a few remarks on its contents. It bears date the 7th of August 1456 (34 Hen. VI.). By it Richard Acreman granted to John Oudene, master of the fraternity or guild of St. George of the Men of the Mystery of Armourers of the city of London, to John Ruttour and William Terry, the wardens, and to the brothers and sisters of the same guild the advowson of or right of presenting a chaplain to the chantry which Joan, formerly the wife of Nicholas de Wokyndon, Knight, founded at the altar of St. Thomas the Martyr in the new work of the cathedral church of St. Paul, London, viz. on the north side of the same church; which altar was, at the time of this grant, placed in the chapel then commonly called the chapel of St. George within the said church, in which chapel the said guild was then lately founded and established by King Henry VI.: this advowson the said Richard Acreman had of the grant of Thomas Coburley and Thomas Burghille, who had it (inter alia) of the gift of Richard Bastard of Bedford and Isabella his wife, who was kinswoman and heiress of the said Nicholas de Wokyndon. The deed was witnessed by William Marwe, the Mayor of the city of London, and John Yonge and Thomas Ouldegreve, the Sheriffs.